I'm sorry that Chris and Paul had bad powdercoat experiences. My own experience is with a local specialist who does motorcycle, auto, and bicycle parts and frames, and is very sensitive to the issues of lug shoreline definition. Powder is a technique that starts with spraying powder. As with any other kind of spray operation, you have painters with different levels of expertise, and not every powder coater has the skills, experience, or interest of the best workers with traditional paint. I'm satisfied with the work done on my Hamel, and someone said that maybe a quarter of the bikes at NAHBS this year were powdercoated.
So, I have two remaining reservations: (1) How do you know that a particular shop is good at it? All I can do is rely on recommendations and looking at their work, and listening for their approach. (2) Will it last? Powdercoat is done without a primer. The plastic powder is sprayed on, and the oven melts it into a tough, continuous surface. It bonded well on mine; it was a bear to scrape excess away where I had to for assembly (mine has a unit bottom bracket that fits fairly snugly into the bracket shell, and I had to carve out the inside paint). I took that as a good sign of potential longevity, but there are no guarantees.
The guy who did mine, Len McCreary, has some current samples on his
craigslist ad, at
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/
harvey sachs mcLean va +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Exactly as Paul said. I am currently stripping a 1971 Atala which appears to an amazing chrome frame. Someone power coated it at some point. Like melting a red crayon over the entire frame. The lugs, serial number and all details were hidden.
Chris Plunkett Chicago, Illinois ___________________________________________________________________
I had a Zeus mixte frameset powdercoated a while back and wasn't impress ed. While the overall appearance was good the outlines of the lugs were softened by powder buildup. The detail was blurred and looked like old house trim with years of paint coat buildup. I had a clear coat on top of the color coat.
Paul Patzkowsky
Longmont, Colorado